


You are Loved

by doctorsorders_deathboy



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, prompt, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:43:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6030199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorsorders_deathboy/pseuds/doctorsorders_deathboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a tumblr prompt I got: "Will was given a blessing, and he didn’t tell anyone about it, and the blessing is that he can absorb people’s pain, Physical and Mental. But it always bounces back at him. So for example if he took the pain away from someone who got stabbed, later he would feel like he was getting stabbed. And so on and so forth" </p><p>Basically, Nico is broken and Will is too nice for his own good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You are Loved

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to it-is-nico-di-solangelo on tumblr for this prompt, I really loved writing this! I was actually worried I wouldn’t be able to get it up today because I had a breakdown earlier, but I was able to pull my shit together and edit this. I hope you’re happy with how it turned out :) Enjoy the feels!

As soon as Will first arrived at Camp Half-Blood, he wanted to go home.

The place was  _ scary _ . There was no way he’d last a day there, the bullies would probably destroy him and  _ omigod is THAT thing the climbing wall?? _

Unlike most other boys his age, he didn’t feel comfortable picking up one of the multiple shiny weapons there. What if he  _ hurt _ someone? But he picked up the weapons anyway, attempting to practice with the other kids but only succeeding in stumbling a lot and getting out with few scratches.

He was lucky that he got claimed so quickly. He only spent a few nights in the Hermes Cabin before he moved into Cabin 7. Unfortunately, he still didn’t feel quite like he fit in, even with his own siblings. The first day he helped out in the infirmary changed everything.

It was there that he felt like he had a purpose. He was able to focus on helping wherever he could, learning whatever anyone was willing to teach him. It was there that he was learning to heal, not hurt, and suddenly Camp began to feel like his home.

The infirmary was the only place at camp where he felt completely in his element. He could help, he was useful, he felt wanted there. Everything was fine until one day he got a certain patient.

She was a daughter of Hermes with a puncture wound that wasn’t too deep. It was something Will would easily be able to heal. But there was a catch: the wound was poisoned. Again, it would still be easy for Will to heal since the poison wasn’t at all fatal, but the poison’s purpose was to cause as much pain as possible. So as Will attempted to heal the poor girl, she was whimpering and crying out frequently, and each sign of pain tore at something inside Will that he couldn’t explain.

His job was to make her feel better. She wasn’t supposed to be hurting.

He frowned, pressing the back of his hand to her forehead reassuringly. “I’m sorry it hurts so much,” he whispered, wishing for her pain to disappear. 

The pain didn’t disappear.

But it did leave her.

Whenever Will used his healing powers, it always felt like he was giving something away, like the power was leaving him and transferring into someone else to help them. What happened right then was the exact opposite. Will felt like a vacuum, like he was sucking something out of the girl, like it was rushing into him and settling somewhere in his gut.

The girl gasped suddenly. “It… it doesn’t hurt. At least not anymore.”

Will furrowed his brow, confused. “O-oh,” he stuttered. “Well, that’s good.”

He didn’t think much of it, just assumed the poison had worn off. But that night as he lay in bed, he suddenly bolted upright, grabbing at his leg that was suddenly full of a stinging pain. His whimpers woke up Lee Fletcher, who hurried over to Will. 

“Hey, are you alright?” he whispered.

Will shook his head, trying to regulate his breathing. “It… it feels like something stabbed my leg.”

“Where?”

“There.” Will motioned to his thigh where the pain was coming from.

Lee examined it as best he could in the limited light in the room, but he frowned. “There’s no wound.”

Will breathed in sharply again. “It hurts  _ so bad _ .”

“Okay, come on, let’s take you to the infirmary,” Lee whispered, helping Will up and letting the younger boy lean on him as he limped to the infirmary.

Lee helped him sit down on one of the cots and began to look closer at Will’s leg. “Will, there’s no wound here. Nothing at all. Not even internal.”

Will winced. “Then why does it hurt so bad?”

Lee frowned. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s all in your head. You were healing a wound just like what you’re describing earlier today, weren’t you?”

Will’s eyes widened. “Oh my gods…”

“What?”

“Um, Lee, when you heal people, does it ever feel like your magic is, I don’t know, pulling something  _ from _ them instead of giving something  _ to _ them?”

Lee’s expression was guarded. “No. I’ve never felt that.”

Will’s face fell. “Oh. Okay.”

“Did you feel that today Will? When you were healing that girl’s wound?”

Will swallowed. “Yeah,” he said in a small voice.

Lee nodded. “That’s why your leg hurts then. You must have taken her pain from her and now it’s in you.”

Will’s eyes widened. “ _ What? _ ”

“It’s not common,” Lee admitted. “But some are blessed with the gift. Well, I suppose it might not be a gift depending on how you look at it. But regardless, you’ll learn to control it better the more you heal people. As far as when the pain in your leg stops? I don’t know. I’ve never actually met anyone with this ability before.”

Lee gave Will a bunch of painkillers, which numbed the pain in his leg to a dull throb so that he could get some sleep. Luckily, by the time he woke up the next morning, the pain was gone.

But his power didn’t go away.

Lee was right, Will did learn to control it better so that he only used it when he intended to, but it still worked the same. He could take anyone’s pain away, but it was only for the pain to come full force on him at night.

He never told anyone. Lee was the only one who ever knew. But then Lee died and Will found that his power could take emotional pain away, too. He took some of the extra pain from the younger campers and slept in the back of the infirmary so that when he was shaking with sobs that night no one would hear.

He became head counselor for Cabin 7 faster than he could keep up with. Michael was gone now, too, and each night Will wasn’t crying with just his own pain but also with the pain of many of his younger siblings. People wondered why he rarely slept anywhere other than the infirmary. They assumed he was just overworking himself, which was also probably true, and he let them believe that that was all that was going on.

He still felt most at home in the infirmary. He was still glad that he was able to help others. He believed it was worth the pain it caused him.

And then before he knew it, Nico di Angelo found himself back at camp and in Will’s life and Will wouldn’t have it any other way. Will knew that he was hopelessly in love and knew that he shouldn’t encourage himself, but there was something that kept pulling him to Nico and he couldn’t ignore the son of Hades, no matter how hard he tried.

The three days in the infirmary passed quicker than he’d have hoped, but after Nico grumpily rushed out of the infirmary after having stayed his time, he reappeared the next morning. 

And the next.

And the next.

Will suddenly found himself wanting to get out of bed in the morning not just to work in the infirmary, but to see Nico. To make Nico smile, to annoy him, to make him blush, to love him. Every night they sat together at the campfire, which was romantic enough for Will.

But one night Nico didn’t show up. 

Will tried to enjoy it without him, but his worrying got the best of him and he found himself walking across the green to Cabin 13 and knocking on the door. “Nico, are you in there?”

Silence. 

“Go away.” The voice was hoarse and broke Will’s heart to hear.

“Nico, are you okay? Let me in.”

“Will, please. For once, just leave me alone.”

“Nico, I can help, I swear.”

“No, you can’t, Will. Go away.”

“But Nico, I--”

“I said, go away!” Nico yelled, more forcefully this time.

Will’s shoulders shook. He didn’t respond, just sat down leaning against Nico’s door. He looked up at the stars, letting the cool breeze pass over his face. He wanted to help Nico so badly, but he didn’t know how. Physically, Nico was recovering, but Will still didn’t know where to start mentally. It’d be a lot easier, of course, if Nico was willing to talk to him but if Will ever brought up more serious topics, Nico just shut down. Will had stopped trying to get Nico to talk to him about things like that, because even though his job was to be Nico’s doctor, deep down he wanted to be Nico’s friend. More than that, even. Will hated himself for it.

He heard a doorknob turn above his head and he turned around to face the door opening, revealing Nico peeking out with puffy eyes and a red nose. Clearly, he’d been crying. Nico glared down at Will when he spotted him. “I knew I didn’t hear you leave.”

“I couldn’t.” Will stood up as quickly as he could, managing to not fall on his face and make a fool of himself.

Nico still glared. “Why not?” he croaked. “Why can’t you ever just leave me alone? Why are you always-- Stop! Don’t touch me!”

Nico pulled back after Will’s hand gently touched his face, leaving Will feel broken.  _ He hates you, he doesn’t want to even touch you. _ But Will had gotten to touch him for a short moment and that was enough.

Nico gasped, his eyes widening as the pain in his chest started to fade. “W-what did you just do?”

“Nothing,” Will lied. “I’ll go now. I’m sorry.”

He walked slowly across the camp to the infirmary, where he settled down in the cot he kept in the back room. He slept there a lot, whenever he knew someone’s pain would hit him in the middle of the night. With a heavy heart, he closed his eyes and drifted off.

A few hours later, he bolted upright with a scream, clutching at his chest. He’d been expecting pain, not  _ this. _ He’d been expecting grief, sorrow, fear, regret, not  _ this. _ Will’s heart felt like it was being ripped and shredded into miniscule pieces and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was alone, he was all alone. No one loved him, no one would ever love him. Everyone was dead, they were all dead, he had felt each and every one of them die, he had  _ felt _ it, he was the first one to know, he was the one who always had to deliver the bad news. He was gross, he was wrong, he was twisted, he was unloved. He was terrified, he was inside of some terrible monster with more monsters after him. There was so much pain that he was almost numb from it. There were stunning sea green eyes that would never love him back that morphed into blue. No one loved him, no one could ever love him.

Will’s sobs wracked through his body for longer than he knew until finally sunrise came and the pain began to fade. He lay on the cot, shaking and trying to catch his breath. As soon as he knew he could stand, he ran across the green until he was knocking at the door of Cabin 13 again. “Nico? Nico, are you there?” Gods, he sounded like a mess. His voice was even worse than Nico’s had been last night. “Nico, please, open up. Please, I have to see you.”

After minutes of pounding, the door finally opened to reveal a dark, messy bedhead and groggy eyes. “Will, what in the name of Zeus are you doing he--” Nico was cut off by Will tackling him with a hug. “W-Will? Will, what’s wrong? Oh my gods, you’re shaking, come on.” Nico led him inside, helping him to sit down. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“I love you,” Will croaked.

Nico froze, his eyes wide. “W-what?”

“I love you,” Will said, not scared of whether or not Nico would reciprocate the feelings. What was important was that Nico needed to know. “I love you, you’re loved, okay?”

“W-Why are you--"

“You have to know that, Nico, you have to know that there are people who love you. I’m not the only one, either. Hazel loves you, and everyone else from the Argo II cares about you, too, plus Reyna. You have to know that, please, you have to know that.”

“W-Will, I don’t-- I’m not-- What are you doing?”

“You never told me you went to Tartarus,” Will said, suddenly.

Nico froze again. He didn’t say anything.

“How did you know that?” he asked, quietly.

Will took a deep breath. “When I touched your face last night, I… Well, I can do this thing where I can take people’s pain from them temporarily. But… But I have to deal with their pain for a night, instead.”

Nico’s eyes widened even further. He looked terrified. “What did you see?” he asked, his voice trembling. 

Will opened his mouth but he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know where to  _ start _ . “I love you,” he said again. “That’s what matters. What matters is that you’re loved, and I swear you are, okay?"

Nico looked down. “Okay,” he said in a small voice.

_ He doesn’t believe you, _ Will thought.  _ You have to make him believe you. _

Will grabbed Nico’s chin, making him look Will in the eyes. “I’m serious, Nico. I’d never lie to you about this. You’re  _ loved _ . I love you so much it drives me crazy.”

“W-Wait, do you mean…”

“I’m in love with you, Nico di Angelo.”

Nico’s eyes were wide again. His whole body was tense and frozen and Will worried that he’d said the wrong thing.

But then a soft pair of warm lips met Will’s and any worries he had were swept from his mind. When they finally pulled apart, panting softly, Will whispered, “You’re loved,” once more.

Nico smiled. “You are, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is appreciated! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!
> 
> My tumblr is doctorsorders-deathboy
> 
> ~*Comments and Kudos make me happier than you'd ever believe*~
> 
> -Aspen


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